1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of controlling a mobile terminal having a function of reproducing content downloaded from a center apparatus, etc. via a network, and also relates to a mobile terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mobile terminals such as mobile phones, which have recently been developed, have a function of reproducing content downloaded from a center apparatus, etc. via a network.
According to this function, a user downloads his/her desired content from a center apparatus, etc., and reproduces the downloaded content, as desired, thus enjoying services relating to the content.
The content downloaded from the center apparatus, etc. includes various service information such as multi-media applications and game applications. Such service information comprises still images, moving pictures, voice data and character data.
Conventionally, once some content has been downloaded from the center apparatus, etc. into a mobile terminal such as a mobile phone, it can be freely reproduced on the terminal side. However, recently, there has been a demand by a content provider side to limit the number of times of reproduction of such content.
The reason is that if the downloaded content is freely reproducible on the terminal side, with or without charge, the value of the content will decrease and the creator of the content may suffer an unexpected disadvantage.
Under the circumstances, there is an attempt to insert information for limiting the number of times of permitted reproduction into such kind of content, thereby to limit the number of reproduction of the downloaded content.
However, the reproduction-side terminal is a mobile terminal such as a mobile phone, and while downloaded content is being reproduced, the reproduction may forcibly be finished due to an unexpected incoming call, battery shutoff, or activation of an alarm sound generation function. Hence, if the number of times of reproduction is uniformly limited, the user may not fully enjoy the services by the reproduction of downloaded content due to occurrence of an unexpected situation.